The Sword and the Staff Behind-the-Scenes Development
The Sword and the Staff is a 2013 episodic medieval, fantasy, adventure series in the PC game Spore: Galactic adventures. Developed by emperormiguel and published using the Spore's publishing system, Spore being a Maxis property, therefore making Maxis the game's publishers. The development for the game took a long four month process until the very first episode of season 1 was released on September 29 2013. The series has received some minor criticisms for not being geometrically balanced, with some programmed items in the world looking out of level size-wise from their real life counterparts. However the series has received much positive reception for it's well developed story and characters. Further Information: The Sword and the Staff Wiki Concept and Creation The creatures and characters in The Sword and the Staff are inspired by the alien theme of Spore and Parkaboy's work in Spore: Galactic Adventures. The characters are often shaped at a dwarfish level with creative alien like features, but yet retaining the Medieval aesthetic that fits with other Fantasy related media such as; Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Berserk, The Familiar of Zero, and Game of Thrones. Much of the races in the game is inspired by 14th and 15th century Europe; the Dark Ages, the Crusades, and the Mongol invasion of Europe. The Helderians The autonomy of the Helderians are inspired by animals such as Ant Eaters and Elephants, but giving them a dark blue exterior skin to make them look alien and cartoon-like. The Helderians make up of most of the population in Helderia (thus the name). Both of the player characters are Helderians. They take after the Medieval Europeans in 14th and 15th century Europe, going by a very feudal system of living, in which nobles and kings rule over the much lower classes like farmers, merchants, and common soldiers. Helderia is ruled by different Kingdoms, each one lives by their own rules and expands based on their choice to ally or conquer kingdoms neighboring them, a nod by emerormiguel to the civilization stage of the main campaign of Spore. It is often rare for the kingdoms to unite under a single cause unless there is a very critical decision for them. The Goblins The autonomy for goblins comes much closer to a boar, their nose featuring a snout and their mouths hiding a pair of tusks underneath. They're much taller than Helderians and feature a lighter tone of blue for their skins, as result from favoring to live in the Mountains. The creation for the Goblins are more in tuned with the Tolkien version of Goblins and takes many inspirations but also sticks to a few of it's own ideas. The Goblins in Helderia are much like the Barbarian tribes that Rome fought against in the Iron Age; tribal peoples like the Germanic, the Britons, and the Saxons. They operate in tribal territories in deep wilderness where the Helderians can't find them, and in this case the Helikirian Mountains; the last hiding place the Goblins have since the fall of their Kingdom. Many years prior to the story of The Sword and the Staff; the Goblins once held a Kingdom of their own in the Mountains of the Helikirian, where every tribe still existing have managed to be united under one King who will lead his people back into their former glory before they hid away from the advancing Herlderians who had cut down the last of their Alkirian allies and drove the last of them to the mountains. However their unification would not last forever; when an army of Dark Ones led by a warrior of their own; would besiege their Underground capital and slay the king himself in his throne room. Ever since that day, the Goblins have been divided into tribes; pitifully fighting for territory as the Helderians Kingdoms slowly encroach upon their Mountain. The Stanions The design for the Stanions looks after a bird-like structure with blackened scales instead of feathers. The Stanions take after Medieval Middle Eastern influences such as the Persians, Turkish, Ottomans, and early Arabian Empire; to which they hold strong religious beliefs that they integrate into their society whilst also having a fond love of science and mathematics. The Stanions unlike their Helderian Neighbors, operate like an empire, in which their is only one ruler to all the territorial lands; in this case Kashetta; the endless deserts of the east. The Stanions place more importance into formulating improve societal structures than warfare and military conquest. This is not to say they are absent minded in the field of Military tactics, in fact they excel in strategy over brute force; a great contrast to their Helderian neighbors; and a saving grace when it came to the Stanion Wars or the Holy War. The Orcanians The Orcanians take a lot of similarities to the Goblins, to which they're made up of mostly aggressive tribal war bands fighting for territorial control. However they take a more Nomadic approach as to Tribal territory; taking inspiration from the Mongols in the Medieval period and the Huns in the Iron age. They move around a lot, never staying in one place; often with the goal of finding worthy opponents to battle and kill, as it is considered a high honor in Orcanian culture to defeat challenging enemies and grow stronger for it. The Orcanians were essentially Helderians themselves, but their skins have blackened due to living under the desert sun and their language is often incomprehensible unless one is Orcanian themselves. Their eyes have turned feral and their teeth have grown so sharp, that some of them have even grown tusks. They neighbor the Stanions and often have conflicts with them, but never actually considered a real threat by their Stanion rivals. Hundreds of years prior to the story of the The sword and the Staff; the Orcanians were once united under a single banner when they sailed across the Glass Sea and into the Mainland of Helderia, to which they launched a mass campaign to pillage and burn the lands in order to complete wipe out a worthy enemy. However due to their inability to work together, maintain conquered positions, train discipline, or carry out strategic military tactics; they were easily defeated and sent back across the seas, often by small militias from small villages or towns. The defeat was so humiliating that the Orcanians killed their own leaders when they reached back to Kashetta and decided to never serve under one banner ever again, thus launching them into the nomadic tribes that they live in the present day. The Dark Ones There lies a great many mysteries over the dark skinned, glowing eyed men who easily grow in the numbers without the aid of reproduction of any sort. Since their appearance in Helderia; nothing but mysteries and wive's tales lie in store for the origin or the purpose of these creatures. The elderly would dismiss them as hoaxes and fairy tales and children would be afraid that they'd crawl into their rooms at night. The kings and queens certainly don't take them in anyway seriously, and even the notion of which is considered mad. Helderia came to full awareness of the Dark Ones when the story of Barristan's fall reached the ears of the Helderian Kingdoms to the west. But most would simply dismiss the stories of the dark skinned men as confusion for the Stanions, who are also similarly dark skinned, or perhaps the Orcanians who were even more so. Regardless of what each men believed, they all came to an agreement to stay away from a possibly foreign controlled Barristan and tighten the border control near that Kingdom. The Dark Ones are actually ethereal beings from a plane of dimension that surpasses the bounds and limits of the Physical world; a place called "The Seven Hells". The Dark Spirits from that dimension have been forcibly controlled through the magic of a powerful artifact the Alkirians developed during the peak of their Imperial power, called: "The Dark Crown", which was designed as a means to conquer the last remaining parts of the known world even if they've already controlled most of it. Their hubris and their greed would be their downfall as the first User of Dark Crown went insane upon wearing it and began summoning mass armies of Dark Ones who proceeded to slaughter and pillage all that had crossed their path. One by by one; the Alkirian empire was defeated at every turn by an unbeatable enemy. Fortunately for them, when the user of the Dark Crown was assassinated and the Crown shattered; the Dark Ones instantly died off where they stood, banishing them from the world, as there would no longer be anything tying them there in the first place, which in this case was The Dark Crown. The concept design for the Dark Ones would always have an "evil" aesthetic in mind, as they were directed to be the main antagonistic force in the game next to Fergus' Soldiers. They have no real resemblance to any kind of animal in real life, they're the closest idea to an alien theme than any race in the game. They have four glowing eyes, no hair of any kind, black scaly skin, a long tail, and a jagged mouth filled with rows of sharp dagger-like teeth. They take inspiration from Tolkien's Orcs or Dragon Age's Darkspawn, which infuses both a barbaric kind of appearance with a possibly spiritual evil origin as to how they came to be. Story Planning The story takes a lot of inspiration from a great many works associated with Fantasy, and doesn't really stand with one main inspiration. The idea of turning the story into an episodic TV series was inspired by works such as the "Game of Thrones" TV show by HBO and Tell Tale's "The Walking Dead" game; in which the narrative is long and drawn out, which may seem like a weakness in itself, but it provides extra details about the world and the characters involved. It's episodic nature will also give a certain addictive quality in which players would be so curious of the next part of the story; that they'll have to catch up with the next episode to continue the narritive. This will allow them to become better immersed and attached to the characters as the series goes on. The Main Protagonists Meletus and Anna are one of the major driving points of the series. They were design to be similar yet different at the same time, both in game play style and character development. The game play mechanic is very heavily based on the turn based combat of RPG's such as Bauder's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Dragon Age: Origins; in which combat takes place in real time, but enemies take a periodic amount of time to launch their next attack. Players will be able to do the same while being able to unleash a flurry of skills and abilities tailored to their characters. Anna can use the default swing attack with her sword or go for a power attack, Meletus can cast his signature Wasp spell or temporarily control an enemy unit. Anna's skills are more tailored towards single targets while Meletus can multitask different opponents if he's used properly. When used together; they can become an unstoppable force suited for any kind of enemy layout throughout the game. Character wise they both have lived out different lives and live in different societies; but they've encountered similar hardships and aspire for something greater than themselves; something beyond the boundaries that hold them. Meletus is a young mage who wants to break the belittling shackles of what his peers deem him to be. He wants to understand his purpose in the world and why he came to be. Anna is a young princess who is crushed by the expectations that is assigned to her; a responsibility she did not choose nor desired in the first place. She is someone who wants to find her own path that define who she wants to be and not what the world forces her to be. The two characters are essentially two sides of the same coin, both different but all the same. It is this strange bond with the two different characters that not only makes them stronger physically but help them develop as stronger characters, and as the series goes on, this bond only gets stronger. The styling of the narrative goes for the "High Fantasy" kind of feel, whilst also retaining a kind of similarity to real life history and past civilizations and eras, mostly on the periods between the 14th and 15th century Europe. The kingdoms in Helderia are in constant state of wars for territory, a grim reflection of the Medieval period, and only when the arrival of a vastly superior force arrives; do they decide to band together to put an end to it; a reference to the enemies of the Roman Empire during the final days of the Rome. The story takes a lot of inspiration from works such as Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins and J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In which a band of heroes must battle through a war-torn world in order to bring order and unite the kingdoms against an oncoming vastly superior foe. Throughout the journey; tragedies will be hit, characters will develop, and wars will be fought, until the finale comes around with a world ending threat that must be stopped by the heroes involved in the story line. The choice of story layout will give much room for a long series that will give much time to live up to the Epic theme and it's genre. emperormiguel of course is not close minded, he is aware that the Fantasy Genre has been done to death by all forms of mediums to the point in can hardly bring any new innovation in terms of ideas or refreshing takes on the themes. After studying much of the genre for so long, he's managed to hide a few fantasy cliches in the main plot for The Sword and the Staff, hoping that players would be able to spot them out as a means for tongue-in-cheek fun towards players familiar with the genre. The series itself will present it's own unique twists and turns as a means to break off from the expectations of the genre, and will sometimes explore themes that aren't explored enough in the Fantasy Genre. Audio Work Most of the series' musical score is taken and used by the Spore: Galactic Adventures soundtrack, which in itself is very limited and the option of music outside the series is considered forbidden by Maxis, the producers of The Sword and the Staff. '' So emperormiguel just had to work with whatever he had, which is to say; the basic soundtrack of ''Spore: Galactic Adventures. He used the method of adjusting the pitch tones of certain musical scores to create his own unique soundtrack that would help create immersion in the world or helped enforce an emotion during a scene in which something critical is happening to the characters or the player. For instance the soundtrack; Victory March was tweaked to have a deeper monotone and slowed down; the vocal effect would stimulate a proud and momentous event; which was more than perfect for the soundtrack behind the city of Valeria, when the player would travel across the streets gazing at the city around them found in the first episode of the third season of the series . Level Design The design for the levels would be very much limited due to the Complexity policy that Maxis established with The Sword and the Staff, which meant that there could only be a limited amount of objectives, dialogue, and in-game assets to help create the adventure. This limitations would be one of the reasons why the story of The Sword and the Staff would be developed into a 9-10 part series, because there simply wasn't enough space per episode to get the desired amount of story and player objectives, this actually became one of emperormiguel's first challenges to creating the desired story-driven game he wanted to develop during the early days of development for The Sword and the Staff. The layout of each level is started off with choosing the flora and colors of the world using the world builder of Spore:Galactic Adventures to establish the environment in each episode of the series. With a few tweaks; emperormiguel can make mountains, forests, and oceans; which helped with devloping the world of Helderia with clean efficiency. The time of day and colors of the sky box help establish the mood of characters and their reactions towards events in the plot; for instance the death of a character will be represented with red skies or a dawn to help push the emotion of loss and hopelessness. Once the world and it's environments has been created; emperormiguel moves onto prop placement. In-game props such as buildings and furniture give immersion to an environment whilst also helping the player find a sense of progression, as the props help players better find their way from objective to objective, true it will not always be like this, but in most cases throughout the series; emperormiguel has designed the buildings almost specifically to the goal of leading players to the next objective. More complex prop placements in the series such as building interiors require more effort than simply placing into the world. Rooms are created wall-to-wall and their ceilings must give enough height towards the players exploring them. Forming one wall at a time to create a room in-game consumes a lot of the limited Complexity that each adventure is budgeted to. In most cases; emperormiguel simply creates buildings so they are specifically designed as interiors; thus limiting the need for single wall emplacements in the world and the complexities it brings. The design of walls and other assets in-game can be designed via the building editor, which helps emperormiguel make any kind of prop in the world; whether it be a castle or a simple bookcase, it can all be designed in the matter of minutes depending on the scale of the creation and the details involved (e.g. markings and other ornate features). Once props have been placed into the world, the next step is to add invisible walls and boundaries to the world. The default world given when starting out the design for an episode is very large in scope and will not doubt unnecessarily extend the time of an episode to the point it will no doubt begin tp test the patience of players. So to avoid having players wonder aimlessly in a big empty world; boundaries and invisible walls are put into the world to help guide players to the destined path that will lead them to the next segment in the story without confusion. Surprisingly they can also be used to stop players from encountering bugs or glitches via not letting them fall into an unstable regional part of the game map. In-game emperormiguel uses a default prop by'' Spore: Galactic Adventures'' called "jump pads" as a means to create invisible walls, by setting their visibility level to "invisible" and then turning them on their sides so that the bottom flat bit of the jump pad acts a prop that blocks players from moving further when in contact. The environment and flora can also be used as a means to border the player, but unfortunately, it's not always reliable as players often find ways to exploit these flora and end up in locations they shouldn't be in the story. Along with story progression, invisible gates can help with the placement of invisible teleporters. These teleporters can force players into cinematic events that take place during the game. The cinematic events are triggered using the "objective system" of Spore: Galactic Adventures '' by having the game move onto the next objective automatically as soon as all of the previous ones from the Act before are completed. The triggered cinematic event is essential just one Act in the game, but instead of filling it out with objectives to do; the players are instead given the luxury of just watching the story unfold automatically as props, characters, and special effects are scripted to present a certain narrative for the player to watch. Invisible teleporters can also be used as a means to give the illusion of entering interiors of custom made buildings using in-game props to stimulate an indoor environment. Once the world, props, boundaries, and teleporters have been completed; comes the most important step to creating an episode in ''The Sword and the Staff ; character placement and text dialogue. The series relies heavily on the strength of it's developing narrative and places it's importance above all else. While environments are good eye catchers and game mechanics give a smoother experience, it is story in emperormiguel's opinion that truly holds the weight of importance in any kind of media, whether it'd be movies or video games. The story in the high fantasy genre explores the dilemmas and conflicts with the fictional world, which on closer inspection holds some reflective qualities to our own world and the dilemmas we struggle with. The characters are a reflection of people we meet in real life and the conflicts they must fight through to grow into stronger people. The events and drama that takes place in the story is a way of expressing the uncertainty of life and how the many aspects in our lives can change for the better or worse for it. By the story's conclusion; whether the ending is good or bad; we get to understand from throughout the entire journey; the stakes at hand and the things that will be gambled, and what meaning that has to us. If done right, it's the story that sticks with the player for a long time, because no matter what story is written; it will always be close to it's author's experiences and unique to those who are not familiar with it. emperormiguel starts off the process of integrating story into an episode by first placing important characters into the world and dictating where they'll be on it and how the player will get to them, and then deciding if the player should encounter some kind of conflict from getting to them. Alternatively characters can also be used in the same way a "Quest Giver" in an MMORPG works; by telling the story first and then sending off the player to the task later. Along with the main characters stand the NPCs and their role in the episode. NPCs can fulfill a whole variety of roles; but the two biggest ones are allies in combat and a means to background information. Whenever there's a big battle that will no doubt be overpowering for the player to handle alone, then extra NPCs may be needed to assist the player, this will also add an extra element of immersion to create a proper battle or battlefield as there are many in-game units fighting each other in a chaotic behavior, like most open battles in 14th-15th century Europe. The other role is very detrimental to the immersive experience and building the world of The Sword and the Staff. A world can be only so large and so detailed before it starts feeling lonely. NPCs help fill the spaces in between cities, halls, markets, and other crowded places, acting out as an imperative part of the world and a reminder of the world you fight for and the story you get involved with. They can give background information on characters, locations, lore, and creatures; and overall anything that can help players better immerse into the story and universe of the game. Another important kind of character that's detrimental to the story are the enemies. Enemies contribute conflict to each episode and add a gameplay mechanic on their own. Without them, most of the series might as well be a virtual novel. Different enemy types, their numbers, and their positions in the environment can diversify their attack patterns on approaching players and will force the player to think up new and innovative ways of tackling enemy encounters with the limited amount of abilities at hand. This adds challenge and diverse gameplay to a series that is in dire need for more of it; especially one that focuses on narrative alone. Series Promotion Along with the promises of a visually and textually appealing narrative from the very first episode of the series, there was also a promise that the series would run like a TV series with three episodes for every season, and that it would go as far as to 10 seasons overall to cover a big and epic story. This was a way of adding content and diversity towards the Spore theme forum called; "The Sporum" in which players discuss their experiences with anything related to the game Spore . After 2010 the Sporum started to decline in user numbers and the amount of threads and forum activity started to die down as players ended up leaving the game permanently, sometimes coming back for occasional visits at best. emperormiguel came with the announcement that he would be releasing an all new and original series; the news would travel throughout the Sporums; bringing forward new players and fans to the promising series. emperormiguel even changed his user thumbnail to ads of the series in attempt to attract players who see his posts on the Sporums. Release The first episode of The Sword and the Staff was publicly released on September 29th 2013, to which it became a surprise hit when it garnered a lot of positive feedback especially on story and environmental design, and soon enough; there began a constant demand for the next episode, to which emperormiguel happily obliged. It did not go without criticism however, as it was criticized for being too much in touch with the real earth and not alien enough, while others claimed that the characters were too simple in design. Overall the first episode for season 1 of The Sword and the Staff was a success and even earned emperormiguel a few new buddies to his Spore profile and earning him a reputation as an adventure developer on the Sporum. About the Developer emperormiguel is a handsome hard-at-work man who takes his job seriously. It was around 2008 when emperormiguel got into the game Spore through recommendations from his nerdy friends who are not as awesome and handsome as he is. He quickly grew to love the game and played it as soon as he came home after school to continue his passionate and brutal Pol-pot worthy dictatorship of the entire universe which often came to a screeching halt when he encountered another would-be conqueror race known as the "Grox" who of course through military might and sheer awesomeness of emperormiguel's dashing good looks; were defeat in like a single afternoon, maybe two, three at most. When they were defeated, emperormiguel had broken into the universe's most inter core and he brought back with him a most terrible and awe-inspiring weapon that would lead to the mass genocide of the entire universe, including his own race; until eventually only emperormiguel himself was the only living specimen left in the entire universe. As he wandered the vast emptiness of space and saw that there was no longer anyone to conquor; he felt alone.... He had all this power and no one to share it with. In the end he only had himself to blame and decided to commit suicide.... Which is to say he uninstalled the game and went on vacation in Hawaii to relax with his many girlfriends (who all love him unconditionally and DON'T leave him for college drop-outs, Monika!). Once he came back, he resorted to playing different games to make up for all that troublesome social contact that hindered his gaming schedule. Around later that same year he would go on to release his first official series called "Legendary", which has been deleted now due to emperormiguel's sheer embarrassment of even having it around. His adventures afterwards would improve over time, especially in fields such as character development and story writing. Adventures such as "A Knife in the Dark", "The Unusual Chosen One", and "The Star Strider" would go on to become big hits (depending if 50 players or less was even considered big at the time). After the flop that was "Blood and Sand" in 2012; emperormiguel lost a lot of confidence and decided to give up on adventure creation and so he went off Spore for a whole year focusing on other games or perhaps establishing a social life, which was of course illogical and absolutely crazy for him to do. In what would seem to be the last of his involvement in the game would only be a temporary mourning as it wouldn't be long before the king of awesomeness would return... In 2013 an awe-inspiring epic tale had suddenly hit his mind like lightning out of nowhere. The story of two teen heroes fighting against a magical evil in a fantasy medieval setting. The story would flash before his eyes and it wouldn't be long before he started drawing up ideas and plotting how the narrative will run and the twists and turns that player would encounter throughout. emperormiguel had doubts on his ability to please his subscriber base, but he also knew he was capable of making good adventures, so he buckled down and got to work; installing Spore:Galactic Adventures after a year of putting it down. In September 29 2013 he came marching back into the Sporum with a thunderous announcement of a Series promising story and well developed characters; this series would go onto be named "The Sword and the Staff" because "Miguel's Subconscious Escapist Fantasy" did not sound like an appealing tittle to the marketed series. The first episode would boost his subscriber base and would go onto establish a steady and loyal fan base for the series. His "Season Pages" on the Sporum would help keep him in contact with his fans and help get an understanding from their point of view, which no doubt helped him add changes and improvement onto the series as a whole. He still continues to work hard this year and even hints at coming to the series' conclusion sometime late this year once his exams were over, we'll just have to see in the coming days.